The Scent Of Roses:A Different version
by eryn lasgalen elf
Summary: It's pretty much me rewriting part of the Scent of Roses cause I wouldn't mind putting more Kitt angst in it


_Knight Rider isn't mine and none of the characters or names or whatever are. They belong to whoever owns them. (Lucky so and so)._

"Damn", Michael whispered as quietly as possible. Sitting inside Kitt's cabin at a stop light, he was quietly mourning his wife. It was only a day since her funeral and he had barely spoken at all. He couldn't. Anything he said would remind him and would either lead to uncontrollable tears or sheer anger.

Durant, that bastard…. Michael clenched his teeth and hands in fury. He would kill him for Stevie's death come what may.

The stop light changed colour but Michael was too busy plotting to pay attention. Kitt gently took control and pulled away, turning right away from the town for no obvious reason – especially since he was in the turn left lane. He ignored the yells of outrage and sped away.

Michael glanced up and frowned as the Trans-Am performed yet another illegal turning and left the suburbs at a ridiculous pace. He put the engine into neutral and immobilised his partner's engine control, leaving the AI to control the car as it coasted to a stop.

"Why the hell am I here?" Michael snarled getting out and slamming the door shut with unnecessary force.

"I thought you might want some space to think" was Kitt's meek answer.

Michael was startled at the submissiveness Kitt was displaying,

"Oh thanks. Sorry about snapping there..."

"Don't worry about it, Michael" interrupted Kitt bringing back some of his attitude.

The tall curly haired man sat down heavily on the Pontiac's hood, and stared at the horizon.

Durant… Yes, he would die for this, Michael promised himself that. But he'd need information to get to wherever he was hiding. Hmm... That plane had to have had a serial number or at least an identifiable make. So, Kitt would therefore have registered it somewhere in his databanks.

"Kitt?" He became all business, slamming the door shut and glaring at the voice modulator.

"Yes Michael?"

"The plane that flew into our house, did you get anything on it?"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Michael guessed that Kitt had realised what he was thinking.

"Michael, I don't think that's such..."

"I don't care; just tell me whether or not you can identify it!"

"But…"

"Kitt! Now!"

The AI sighed quietly and brought up a list of all the people who had sold that make of model plane. It turned out to be a fantastically rare one – only one person in California seemed to sell it, strangely enough in a car parts yard. He put the name on his monitor along with directions on how to get there, because he suddenly didn't feel like talking to his partner very much.

Michael nodded curtly, picking up on Kitt's reluctance to speak and choosing to ignore it. He floored the throttle and shot off, travelling at what Kitt felt to be an incredibly suicidal speed especially when driving down the wrong side of the road whenever there was another car on their side.

When they pulled into the yard, Michael purposely blitzed a pile of plastic barrels making Kitt yelp in shock. He only realised then that they had been tailed but before he could tell Michael his partner was already in the shop, threatening the elderly man inside.

The tail, a blue Cadillac with a huge dent in the front, stopped beside the Trans-am. The darkened window opened slightly and something that looked like a gun muzzle was pointed out of it. Kitt yelped again as the gun fired an EMP straight at the front of the car, scrambling his systems completely for around half a minute. When he managed to get his CPU straightened he found Michael sitting frowning impatiently in the driver's seat.

"Sorry, Michael" the AI muttered allowing his driver the control of the car, "Did you get anything?"

"We know where the man who bought the plane is. 35 Purse Road, find it OK?"

Kitt wobbled his way through the search routine and just about got a fuzzy picture of the area on the monitor. Michael glanced at it and floored the accelerator again. For no apparent reason, Kitt cried out in pain as a surge of energy slammed into his CPU. Michael paid no attention to his partner's distress and pushed the gas down harder. This time, Kitt only whimpered still in to much shock to talk properly.

After the agony had subsided a bit, he ran a systems check. It came up with a virus, gradually destroying his systems and until the final deed had been done causing the perceptors to overload.

'Oh……' Kitt couldn't think of a good enough swear word even though he'd heard them all from Michael. There was one that seemed rather relevant, at least for the Knight Industry AIs anyway.

'Damn….'

Kitt didn't mention the virus to Michael, even as his partner crashed the ornate gates from Durant's associate's house and left Kitt screaming helplessly and silently in his CPU.

"Michael, wait"

This time Kitt noticed the tail before Michael got out. It was the blue Caddy again, but this time the occupant got out, holding a real gun. Durant…. Kitt was forced to lock the doors, the sunroof and even the windows closed to prevent his partner getting out and rushing Durant.

The man laughed,

"Temper, temper, Mr. Knight, we wouldn't want you getting hurt would we?"

Both partners cursed Durant's guts as he sauntered forward and amiably sat down on Kitt's hood. He grinned and pressed one hand down extra hard just to cause a little more pain and to stop the AI gaining enough mental stability to run him over. Inside the car, Michael snarled and swore, trying to manually override Kitt's system and take control.

"Ah ah ah," sniggered Durant, standing again and moving away,

"If you want a showdown Knight, then the old warehouses on the quay tomorrow night. I'm afraid you'll have to get your wonder car to tell you which one however. If it's still operational by that time of course".

The Cadillac pulled away, with Durant safely inside it. Kitt was then safely able to let his raging partner out.

"What the hell was that about?" yelled Michael viciously kicking one of Kitt's tyres.

The AI backed up, shivering obviously from the pain and fright at Michael turning so nasty. Michael lowered his tone slightly when he next spoke,

"What did he mean if you're still operational by then?"

Kitt didn't reply but reversed more and turned side on to his partner, as though trying to avoid scanner to eye contact.

"Kitt? Come on, what's up with you? Kitt! Listen I don't really have time for this, please?" Michael was quickly becoming frustrated with his partner's strange behaviour,

"Jesus, Kitt, just forget it and let me in."

He approached the shaking Trans-Am and grabbed the door handle, making sure Kitt didn't back away again.

"That's better", he muttered and slid in, pulling the door shut behind him.

"Now the quay…"

Kitt simply put a map up of the surrounding area and let Michael find his way on his own.

'Durant was right' thought Kitt miserably, 'I probably will shut down before we find him. But I can't leave Michael; he won't be able to find Durant without me. I've got to at least try.'

It took them an hour to find the group of abandoned warehouses at the waterside. Kitt was already scanning to find Durant and his men before they even pulled in through the gate.

"The second furthest down on the right"

Michael nodded and floored it aiming for the building and tearing through the wall.

'Damn, that _hurts_!' yelped Kitt inwardly. He gave the computer equivalent of a tired grin inside his CPU, 'I could get into this swearing business, eventually'.

Inside the warehouse Durant and his two cronies were standing of a high platform, Durant with a rocket launcher quite happily under an arm.

"Turn on the speakers, Kitt" commanded Michael,

"Durant, why don't you come down and fight? You killed Stevie and I'm going to kill you so there's no point in putting it off."

Durant just toted the rocket launcher and aimed. Kitt pulled away even before his finger had tightened on the trigger properly and the rocket slammed in the cement behind the car.

"Michael, if hit that platform it will come down. It's very flimsy. But may I advise we don't get hit with one of those missiles: I don't think I could take a hit."

Michael muttered his agreement and pulled the wheel hard to the left, dodging another explosion. He pressed down hard on the accelerator and Kitt for some reason barely noticed it. He barely had time to think, 'That cannot be good', before they blitzed the insubstantial scaffolding holding the platform up. As it collapsed Durant's cronies were thrown off and knocked unconscious. Somehow Durant himself managed to keep his balance and consciousness to run away from the charging Michael.

Michael just wanted to kill Durant, there was nothing more to say. He punched Durant extremely hard, throwing the man into a wall. He grabbed him again and threw him against Kitt's flank and drew back to throw a punch that would probably break the man's neck.

"Michael!" Kitt was appalled to see his partner so close to… to murder.

"Michael, no. You'd be no better than him if you did, you wouldn't be able to live with yourself."

Michael stopped, his partner was right, he couldn't. He'd have to be satisfied seeing Durant rot in prison for the rest of his life.

"Bastard" he hissed between clenched teeth, slamming Durant's head back, knocking him unconscious. There was the faint but unmistakable sound of police sirens in the distance, Kitt must have already called them Michael supposed.

"Michael…"

The pain in the AI's voice as the man got back into the car startled Michael out of the daze he was in.

"Michael, about the things that Durant said earlier? It's a virus."

"What? You waited all this time to tell me? He said that you might not be operational by now," Michael froze,

"Kitt? Kitt? Come on, buddy, come on, don't, please don't."

Michael realised he was shaking; he couldn't lose Kitt as well. Not the two people that meant the most to him, not to that bastard….

"I think that maybe returning to FLAG might be in order", mumbled Kitt weakly.

Michael nodded quickly and the car skidded off, nearly running over a police officer's foot as it barrelled through the gap in the wall.

Devon was sitting in his office staring at the wall when Michael burst in.

"Devon, where's Bonnie?"

"In the semi with Reginald. Why?"

But Michael was already gone. Seconds later there was the sound of gravel churning under the Pontiac's tyres as it drove off.

"There must be something wrong" Devon said to himself heading for the semi as well.

Bonnie and RC were talking miserably as Kitt pulled into the service area.

"Michael! Kitt!" Bonnie stood up; she didn't like the expression on Michael's face.

"Bonnie, please, Kitt needs help, Durant got a virus into him and he's nearly dead. You've got to help him."

She didn't need any more encouragement than that and sprang into action, snapping commands out to RC. Michael simply stood in the corner and started slightly when Devon arrived and put a hand on his shoulder.

It was an half an hour later when Bonnie lifted her head from the computer and turned to Michael and Devon who were still looking on.

"I've destroyed the virus I think, but it's going to take him a while to get back up on his feet again."

"Devon, can I borrow your Merc?" said Michael suddenly, "I wanna do some thinking somewhere."

"Of course, it's in its usual space" said Devon handing the keys to Michael, who ran off.

Once in the car he just put his foot down and drove in no particular direction. His wanderings eventually brought him to the beach where he and Stevie used to hang out at. He walked down the beach and sat on the sand, looking out at the ocean and contemplating his future.

Just before nightfall, hours later, there was the familiar hissing noise of Kitt's turbines as he pulled in the car park beside Devon's Mercedes.

Sighing, Michael stood up and brushed the sand off himself. He trudged back up to Kitt and paused before climbing in.

"Where are we going now, Michael?" asked Kitt as the car pulled out of the park.

"Home, Kitt. Back to the Foundation."

_Sorry if that was awful but I just had this urge to rewrite an episode of Knight Rider so that it had more Kitt angst in it and this was the most recent I watched so… _


End file.
